Portfolio
Quality assurance for a Swiss eLearning company’s SaaS platform and other IT solutions
a1qa helped the client ensure failsafe operation of diverse eLearning solutions
Overview
…is sure to have made the right choice by pinpointing a1qa. We are ready to vouch that the company is a valuable business partner for everyone in need of a reliable QA vendor assisting in achieving business-crucial aims.
President
The client is a Swiss-based software development company providing public and private organizations with tech-powered learning and training services and solutions.
With their increasing number of developed IT products, the client enlisted the help of a1qa and expanded the testing team with a1qa’s QA engineers.
The scope of tested IT products incorporated 3 types of content platforms:
- The authoring platform allows end customers to create training content (e.g., courses, guides, manuals, workbooks, and more).
- Custom-made eLearning systems are developed upon personal request from multiple partners — including universities, publishers, schools, corporate training teams, etc. —are presented as bespoke ready-to-use apps for students and other learning content consumers.
- A single SaaS digital education platform that has the same purpose as customized eLearning systems but is available by subscription. Now, the organization is gradually transferring all the custom-made systems to the SaaS platform to deliver educational materials faster.
To alleviate the process of content creation in the authoring platform, end clients harness a set of interface styles and rules. Once the content is ready, they publish it on the tailored eLearning systems or on the SaaS platform.
To improve customer experience and allow its end users to create educational courses anytime, anywhere, the client also added the possibility to author courses in offline mode both on mobile devices and desktops.
Services offered
QA processes setup
Functional testing
Mobile apps testing
Performance testing
Cybersecurity testing
Test automation
Usability testing support
Project scope
After working with one QA engineer assigned by a1qa, the customer was fully satisfied with the provided services and extended the testing scope consigned to a1qa.
After receiving software requirements prepared by a product owner of a particular partner, the QA team composed test cases and embarked on testing activities.
Alongside new feature testing, performing smoke and regression testing allowed QA engineers to quickly pinpoint defects in the systems and promptly eliminate them while preventing expensive bug fixing after going live.
With each testing iteration, QA specialists composed reports on the current state of software quality to monitor the improvements and make QA processes more transparent.
As the core platform had a mobile version, it was crucial to check its operation against portable devices.
To conduct precise compatibility view checks, QA experts harnessed real gadgets. Their choice was based on deep understanding of the target audience and statistics on the usage of the real devices, while keeping in mind that end users may have both the most current phones/tablets and less common ones.
With a voluminous number of custom-made platforms, smoke and regression checks took a long time to perform and were rather labor-intensive. To free up QA efforts and focus on more important objectives, the QA team carried out automated testing.
Starting with a pilot project, a1qa’s test automation solution architect built an automation framework from the ground up, adjusted it to the client’s requirements, demonstrated how it can be implemented into the testing workflow, and calculated the projected benefits of test automation implementation on a bigger scope.
The customer was satisfied with this initiative and assigned a1qa to continue performing the service in terms of the main project. Test automation activities were introduced on both the web authoring and SaaS platforms while being tailored to each app specification.
The a1qa specialists integrated the Python-based framework with the Jenkins CI and Allure automated reporting system, thus automating test runs. In addition, the engineer set up the integration of Jenkins CI with TestRail to gather results of all tests, both manual and automated, executed against a given version of the software in one place.
In line with partners’ request for assuring the stability of custom-made apps, the client needed to conduct performance testing. With its vast experience in that, a1qa handled this task with ease.
The specialists determined whether systems were able to cope with the required load for an extended time and evaluated software performance under extreme rates to identify the upper limits of its capacity.
Alongside testing activities, the QA team configured AWS virtual machines to help the client optimize testing costs.
After tests completion, the squad composed reports with comprehensive data on the software performance parameters and a list of recommendations on how they might be improved.
To optimize the testing process and reduce QA costs, the a1qa engineers selected automated tools that sufficiently met both budget and project needs.
Some of the end customers’ apps needed to be highly protected. The a1qa team took the assignment and assisted the client in ensuring cybersecurity.
The specialists compiled the required number of checks to spotlight critical loopholes. The most important verifications in terms of understanding the security level were rapidly carried out to give the development team more time to fix any issues.
Afterwards, a1qa gave the client recommendations on how to maintain a high level of security and helped to prepare cybersecurity reports for the partners.
As the client intended to evolve the SaaS digital education platform as a flagship solution for partners, it was necessary to ensure clear and intuitive information architecture, faultless workflow logic, and user-friendly interface.
Thus, the customer requested a1qa’s assistance in usability testing. The assigned a1qa specialist established the QA usability process, designed a checklist, and shared specific expertise on usability standards and requirements.
After holistic consultation, the client’s UI/UX expert performed tests with the support of the a1qa team and its recommendations.
Smart team scalability for improved service delivery
Within dozens of partners’ apps and the need to test and maintain them, it was necessary to expand the number of QA specialists to deliver high-quality software while meeting deadlines.
Keeping that in mind, a1qa scaled up and scaled down QA engineers upon request, adjusting to the rapidly changing conditions.
a1qa’s QA manager established a knowledge matrix, updated it regularly, and made sure that knowledge on all IT products’ aspects was retained within a team. This approach helped eliminate a “bus factor” risk, provide cover for people who took sick or vacation leave, and switch specialists between sub-teams during sudden workload spikes.
Improving QA processes
Considering 7 QA teams were distributed to evaluate a certain partner’s solution, it was challenging to ensure visibility on the project. It triggered issues with documentation, test coverage, and knowledge transfer.
Therefore, it was important to set up formalized QA processes. They help to ensure that both project newcomers and experienced team members within each QA team understand the task in the same way, follow the same rules and criteria while performing QA activities or reporting on results. In addition, QA managers can measure and analyze KPIs of each testing team using the same approach, easily aggregate product quality metrics from several sub-teams to see the full picture. Following the same rules also allows switching specialists between teams without spending time on their adaptation.
To establish this approach, a1qa appointed a QA manager who assessed testing workflows and practices based on a1qa’s internal audit metrics.
The a1qa specialists composed a QA acceleration plan and suggested a list of improvements, the part of which is already implemented, including but not limited to:
- Restructuring the current TestRail projects model that would help optimize efforts for product investigation, quickly manage test coverage, and ensure informed and fast decisions due to high transparency and ability to see the big picture on the project established due to tools’ capabilities.
- Enhancing the knowledge transfer process that would pave the way for streamlined QA expertise handling and efficiently assigning resources.
- Broadening test coverage due to writing required automated scripts to cover more features with testing in less time.
As a result, the client obtained new QA policy and refined processes, which included the following changes: a matrix of team’s expertise for strategic allocation of specialists, redesigned test documentation model for increased testing efficiency, extended test coverage for improved software quality.
Technologies & tools
- Gitlab
- Python
- Pytest
- Selenium WebDriver
- Jenkins
- Allure Reporting
- TestRail
- Postman
- Atlassian Jira
- G. Drive
- Abstract
- TestFlight
- WAVE
- Tota11y Plugin
- WCAG Accessibility Audit
- DevTools
- ChromeOS
Results
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Revamped QA workflows due to all-inclusive process assessment and support in enabling a unified QA approach.
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Optimized QA budget by automating smoke and regression testing.
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Delighted partners with high-quality software through holistic QA assistance, including performance and cybersecurity testing, at all SDLC stages.
In numbers
3+
years of project duration
11
QA engineers during peak load
7.5
boost in smoke testing due to test automation
10.4
speed-up in regression testing thanks to test automation